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Marquette will host North Carolina in men's lacrosse tournament

For a program that had never heard its name called during an NCAA Tournament selection show, the Marquette men's lacrosse team was remarkably at ease as it gathered Sunday night at the Union Sports Annex.

Part of that calm stemmed from exhaustion after a 3 a.m. wake-up call for a flight back from Denver. The other part came from returning from Colorado with an automatic bid wrapped up thanks to a 10-9 victory over Denver — the No.1 team in the country and reigning national champion — in the Big East title game.

The biggest question for Marquette was whether or not it would host a home game at Valley Fields in the opening round of the 18-team tournament. That answer came just a few moments into the selection show as the Golden Eagles (11-4) were announced as the No. 6 overall team, meaning they would indeed host a game. About 15 minutes later, they learned their opponent would be North Carolina (8-6), one of the premier teams in the sport, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

'I know one thing, I know they don't want to come out to Wisconsin,' senior midfielder Jacob Richard said when asked what he knew about North Carolina. 'I can't wait to get 'em and punch 'em in the mouth and welcome (them) to the Valley.'

The biggest game in the history of Marquette lacrosse — and in the history of the sport in Wisconsin as well — comes just over three years since the Golden Eagles first hosted a Division I contest in the spring of 2013. It also marks the latest leap in a meteoric rise that even head coach Joe Amplo didn't see coming.

'What an opportunity,' Amplo said. 'We've got a chance to play a blue-blood in our sport, it's one of the best programs in the history of our game. We've got a chance to welcome them to Milwaukee for an NCAA Tournament game. What more can we ask for?

'I'm not sure I even put this in the dreams I had for this program to have that opportunity this early. I can't even say this is a dream come true because that wasn't even in the dream world. It's surreal. It truly is surreal.'

Amplo may not have seen this level of success coming, but he knew about the matchup before everyone else assembled at the Union Sports Annex. He was part of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, and while he succeeded in keeping his knowledge secret, he failed in his goal of staying stone-faced. As the top eight seeds were announced, a smile, which he tried to hide, crept onto his face while his players' eyes stayed glued on the TV screen.

The tournament berth and chance to play at home represents what Amplo called a 'perfect last chapter' for his seniors, who helped him build the program from the ground up.

'We've been through a lot,' Richard said. 'We struggled for a couple years and the whole time we just trusted in the process. We trusted in what Coach Amplo told us and to see that come to fruition is very fulfilling.'

'Everything,' senior attacker Conor Gately added when asked what being in the NCAA Tournament meant. 'Us 19 seniors put our heart into this thing, so we're excited where we are but we're not content.'

While the No. 6 seed and home game serve to validate the program's effort, the team certainly won't lose the chip on its shoulder that it's carried over the years. That's because shortly after learning their seed, the team heard ESPN analyst Quint Kessenich label them as a good story, a one-hit wonder and not worthy of their seed.

'That's great; that's fine,' Amplo said. 'We've proved people wrong from the moment we stepped on campus here. I think it's just another challenge our kids are going to take personal and they're going to play as hard as they can.'